Chapter Thirteen

GURPREET SINGH JOAL

Order in K.O.S.
ON R A C E , R A G E ,
AND M E T H O D

Wc cannot live life without our lives.

Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider

This paper continues dialogues that started long before I entered this world.
It is a journey to discover a knowledge of self (KOS) that may bring order to
life. It is an attempt to nurture a self that is not separated from the rest of life.
The knowledge of self ensures that we will never ignore the connection that
brings all of us together in the family of life. Many people before me have given
voice to their experiences; many have not. Their lives are examples for us all.
Their actions have motivated many, including myself, to attempt to carry on
what they did not think twice about doing. These peopleour mothers,
fathers, sisters, brotherswhether by blood or in blood, continue to carry us
on their shoulders. Without them, not a word would appear on the following
pages. I am constantly reminded, nourished, and empowered by what these
people have accomplished. The eras in which they lived were intensely difficult, yet they never hesitated to do what was needed to get things done. Never
did they relinquish or shy away from the primary motivator in their liveslove.
I will never be able to understand the experiences of these people in the most
difficult times of their lives. I do not know the lived experiences of chattel slavery, indenture, genocide, or rape. All I know is what I have gone through. The
historical moments of slavery, colonialism, and imperial conquest have passed,
but their legacies continue.rTrus chapter attempts to situate discussions of systems of opDrejsjon within a coitmpofary'.nocc^phal framework that, is
based on the historical legacies of enslavement, forced migration, and extermination of people fcoTor by colonial forces.

270 I Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies

What is to be made of people of color and those of the First Nations, who
express their sorrow against occupied settler states such as Canada and the
United States? What is to be made of the collective rage that some people simply can not control? I will attempt to situate these questions in an analysis of
the trajectories of rage. Historically, black rage is a term used to describe the
potential dynamite that is the black underclass of the United States, but are
there other readings of this term? How can the language of rage be used to
empower oppressed peoples? It is critical that there is conceptual clarity
between the rage of the oppressor and that of the oppressed. Where does one
begin to discuss the roles of love and hate in all of this? To borrow from a popular Tina Turner song of some years ago"What's love got to do with it?"
Survival is of the utmost concern in a neocolonial era. How does one survive today? How did folks survive in the past? Is there a way to nurture a pedagogy ofrage as a possible vehicle for resistance? What would a pedagogy of rage
entail? Are there some key points that we may be able to rely on when attempting to make connections with others? What are the roles of embodiment, voice,
militancy, memory, and survival in the articulation of'a pedagogy of rage?
We live in a world in which we, as people of color and First Nations communities, are constantly forced to fit into models that cannot accommodate our
various shapes, sizes, and differences. There are plenty of people with good
intentions in the world, who just can not seem to understand the fact that they
engage in oppressive acts and behaviors. When they are told what they are
doing, a frown usually appears, accompanied by denials. We need to get
beyond the issue of intent and choice and move into the realm of accountability and responsibility. One way to roust people from their comfort zone is an
angry aruculauon of their complicity in systems of oppression, but can this be
done in a way that does not recenter the dominant gaze?
Trajectories of R^ge
Black rage is the rage of the oppressed.
P. Harris, Black Rae Confronts the Law (1997)

Black rage is often depicted in mainstream discourse as a pathological condition of an under-privileged segment of society. No one more explicitly articulates this than Price Cobbs and William Grier in their widely discussed book
Black Rage (1968). These two black psychologists used a Freudian viewpoint
to convince readers that rage was merely as sign of powerlessness. By calling
it a pathology and explaining it away, they failed to see it as a potentially
healthy, healing response to oppression and exploitation.

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My primary motivation for writing this chapter is an attempt to articulate j
the necessity of rage for all oppressed peoples in attempting to counter systems ;
of oppression that dominate their everyday lives. By rescuing rage from the :
pathologizing lens of mental disorder, I hope to demonstrate how rage can be
utilized to maintain health and well-being. Mainstreamj)ortrayals of black rage
often construct nihilistic accounts of black youth alienated and angry for no
apparent reason. Black rage in this sense is seen as a normative aspect of ~
pathologized and impoverished black urban culture. I hope to rupture such
depictions of angry behaviors because they do not take into account the systems of oppression that are in operation.
Mainstream depictions of black rage utilized in media discourses operate
under the aegis of common sense (Campbell, 1995)., Common sense invokes
notions of the familiar and normative. One contemporary example of how common sense is operationalized in the imagination of mainstream media discourses are those involving criminality and militancy, which are often intertwined
with race, gender, class, age, and ability. This is most often seen as an underclass made up of youths of color who are recognized as the enemy from whom
those of the bourgeois utopia are to be protected. According to mainstream
media discourses, the irrational rage of this group must be policed and contained. Legislation must be strengthened to teach this collective of inconsiderate troublemakers a lesson. Stiffer pnames, new laws, increased policing, zero
tolerance policies, and/or medication (such as Ritalin), are some commrisense
strategies that are routinely deployed when authonues attempt to deal with
pathulogized black rage. This example illustrates the material ramifications of
a pathofogized, decontexualized rage.
Public focus on olack rage and the attempt to trivialize and dismiss it, must
be subverted by. oublie ; abrrt the pathology of white supremacy and =
the madness it creates. We need to talk seriously about ending all forms of
oppression if we want to see an end to rage. White supremacy is frightening.
It promotes mental illness and various dysfunctional behaviors on the part of
whites and people of color. White supremacy is the real and present danger
not black rage. These whom mock and trivialize rage do so because they do
not want rage against the status quo to assume the form of strategic resistance.
Hailing the rage of the oppressed is a conscious and deliberate attempt to
make race synonymous with a sense of interconnectedness and self-love. By
linking rage to a passion forjusticJ(t.we may be able to conceptualize the catalyst of rage. A passionate ethical commitment to justice serves as the catalyst
for rage. The fire inside oneself fuels rageit is a necessary element for every
form of struggle against oppression. It is an act of love of self as well as of the
collective movement toward freedom.

272 I Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies

Such an understanding of rage urges one to not see oneself as a perpetual victim. This tone must move away from a sense of isolated hopelessness and
meaninglessness that often has led to what Cornel West has described as
"nihilism" (West, 1994). Nihilism, according to West, "is the lived experience
of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most
important) lovelessness" (23). This sense of victimization carries great costs for
the oppressed; anger becomes internalized and is directed at oneself and those
closest to oneself. The internalization of oppression is a symptom of a disconnected self. Once disconnected,'the rage of the oppressed becomes dangerously self-destructive.
The oppressor often welcomes victimization. For example, victimization
negates white guilt because it comforts the oppressor, bell hooks (1995) suggests that it comforts whites because it is the antithesis of activism. The internalization of victimization leaves the oppressed powerless and unable to assert
agency on their own behalves, hooks notes that, "when we embrace victimization, we surrender our rage" (18).
bell hooks speaks of "constructive healing rage" (18), and notes that this
form of rage leads to self-recovery, which is a necessary precursor to establishing clarity. It burns one's psyche with such an intensity that it creates clarity.
This form of rage is a fundamental component of the political process of
decolonization. For the oppressed, confronting rage forces one to grow and
change. It allows one to intimately understand that rage has the potential not
only to destroy but also to construct. It is a necessary aspect of the resistance
struggle. Rage can act as a catalyst inspiring courageous action, hooks notes:
By demanding that black people repress and annihilate our rage to assimilate, to reap
the benefits of material privilege in white supremacist capitalist patriarchal culture, white
folks urge us to remain compiici! with their efforts to colonize, oppress, and exploit. (16)

hooks further states that the political process of decolonization not only allows
for one to see clearly but that it is also a way to freedom for both the colonized
and~the colonizer. Individuais) who have decolonized their minds make it possible for rage to be heard and used constructively by working together. Malcolm
X serves as a primary figure in the clear defiant articulation of this form of rage.
He unabashedly called for black people to claim their emotional subjectivity
by claiming their rage.
The following statement by hooks allows one to begin viewing rage as productive. Her words speak to the urgency and necessity of reclaiming rage: "As
long as black rage continues to be represented as always and only evil and
destructive, we lack a vision of militancy that is necessary for transformative revolutionary action" (19).

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Paul Harris (1997) offers a critique of the mainstream utilization of black
rage. His usage of the "black rage defense" in the U.S. court system
refutes the idea that there is a lower dais of people inherendy criminal and can be written off by society. It tries to educate people about the oppressive structures and behaviours in society that produce and increase criminality. It has been said that ignoring race
is a privilege that only white people have. This defense torces wtiites, tor a critical
moment in time, to give dp tHat privilege and think about the consequences of a system of white supremacy. (275)

Harris also states that

[although] the usage of the term evokes violent, aggressive images, the black rage
defense encompasses a broader view of African American life than just rage and violence. It includes pride in one's heritage. It explains hopelessness and sheds light on
the darkness of fear and abuse. Most of all, it says to the American legal 'system: You
cannot convict me without hearing who I am and what has shaped me. I was not born
with an M-l carbine in my hands. My childhood dreams did not include robbing a
bank. (37)

Harris notes that black rage is the rage of the oppressed. It is cultivated in
an oppressive environment. In the neocolonial era, all those who suffer from
white supremacy^ capitalism!.patriarchy, and homophobia are oppressed. As stated at the outset of this chapter, my focus is on bodies of color in relation to
whiteness. Therefore, as much as white people across differences of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, or religion may be oppressed in relation to the dominant white middle-class heterosexual male subject, they hold a pigmentary
passport of privilege that allows sanctity as a result of the racial polity of whiteness. This is a luxury that people of color do not have. This is the central issue
upon which I am focusing my analysis in this paper. A pedagogy of rage insists
upon an unconditional commitment to justice. Justice is not something that
is only available to a select group of beings on this planet. As much as systems
of oppression attempt to ensure justice as "Justus," a pedagogy of rage is an
instrumental catalyst of opposition.

The rage of the oppressed is never the same as the rage of the pnvgilr0He~grj2iup\.
can change their lot only by changing the system; the other hopes to be rewarded with-"~~~in the system.
bell hooks. Killing Raae

The rage of the oppressor is not the rage I wish to utilize for any transformative project. This form of rage is anger motivated by fear. It is a fear of the loss
of dominant status or privilege in relation to the oppressed. Flipping the tired,

274 I Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies

all-too-often quoted Lord Acton statement that "power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts abronuely* on its head, Aung Sa Suu-Kyi offers another
reading of power and corruption. Rather than focus on power itself, and thus,
in the process, deny any agency to the power of resistance to the oppressed,
her emphasis simultaneously relies on the loss of power and the unhealthy state
of perpetual victimhood experienced by the oppressed. She states the follow
ing: "It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those
who wieid it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who subject to
it" (1995, 182). Thus the fear of the oppressor should be seen as a form of
resentment towards those who threaten the dominant status of this all-know
ing subjectivity.
White resentment has often been equated with black rage in mainstream
discourses. The justification of white to maintain white officialdom,
and the pathologlzaidon ol black rage to demonstrate innate threats to white
civility have been readily documented by scholars such 'as Patricia vVuTtams
(99) and Paul Harris7T997). I will consider their respecuve contributions
to my analysis lateriri this section. First I want elaborate on my point concerning white resentment.
The discourse of resentment, according to Cameron McCarthy (1998), is
"[T]he practice of defining one's identity through the negation of the 'other'"
'(84)1 The following quote taken from Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy (1990) exemplifies my usage of resentment within the context of its treatment as victimhood:
"How do you get to be the sort of victor who claims to be the vanquished
also?" The fear of "encirclement by difference" is that motivates the dominant
subjCs claim to victimhood. loss of autonomy, as well as a loss of property, generates the fear and subsequent anxiety of the dominant subiect. Both the
material and representational aspects of whiteness are seen to be at stake for
those who 'feel they must defend their' sovereignty against social difference.
McCarthy'articulates the negation of social difference by white resentment in
the following passage, "The middle class declares there are no classes except
itself, no ideology except its ideology, no party, and no politics, except for the
politics of the center, the politics of the middle, with a vengeance" (91).
'
in order to comprenend'thc functioning of white supremacy, we must be
able to see its material relationship to the environment in which it is produced.
As W. Mills's Racial Contract (1997) has demonstrated, occupying the
moral center is vital to the reproduction of whiteness. The aggressive manner
in which this is accomplished is seemingly justified due to the overall commit
ment to racial polity. Thus white resentment is seen to be a defense of white
ness. And since whiteness is a set of power relations, then resentment is "[a]
power with its own material and discursive logic" (McCarthy, 1998, 92).

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Whiteness offers white people material as well as symbolic benefits. Many
have become so. accustomed to the benefits and privileges associated with.
whiteness that such rewards seem natural. This naturalization has led to seem
ingly innate biological and cultural characteristics of civility. In the minds of
white people, they have earned everything they have achieved through their
personal hard work and merit. The "wages of whiteness" have been translat
ed into beads of perspiration and have resulted in comfortable positions with
in the racial polity (Roediger, 1991). George Lipitz (1998) notes that white
people hold a "possessive investment in whiteness" xlue to the fact that
[w]hiteness has a cash value: it accounts for advantages that come to individuals
through profits made from housing secured in discriminatory markets, through the
unequal education allocated to children of different races, through insider networks that
channel employment opportunities to the relatives and frie/ids of those who have
profited most from present and past discrimination, and especially through mtergen;
e rational transfers of inherited wealth that pass on the spoils of discrimination to sue-
ceciing generations, (vii)
"

Lipitz argues that whites are encouraged to invest in whiteness, to remain true
to an identity that provides them with resources, power, and opportunity. As
a form of property, whiteness is something that is invested in, but is also a means
of accumulating property and keeping It from others. Patricia Williams (991)
haommerted on thehafslrreallrles that result from this form of investment.
The symbolic obliteration of any threat to the property of whiteness is that
which Williams refers to as "spirit murder" (74). The fear and anxiety associated with the loss of this form of personal property translates into actions justifying hate toward the threat of the Other. This fear brings with it an intense
paranoia and a constant obsession with safety. The growing number of gated
communities in Canada and the United States is but" one example of the
oblesion with safety. Thisformof resentment cannot be equated with the rage
ofthe oppressed because of its reliance on a distant Other who must be dom"tated to~nsure the survival ot self
j
The rage of the oppressed, on the other hand, is a rage motivated by love
of self, justice, and the ecology that binds all living things on this planet
together. Once again I turn to the words of bell hooks in guiding an understanding ofthe politicization of love. Love, hooks (2000) notes, drawing on
the work of M. Scott Peck, is
the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth . . . The desire to love is not love itself. Love is as love does. Love is an
act of willnamely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do
not have to love. We choose to love. (4,172)

276 I Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies

hooks's insiwnrp onrhinking of love as an action rather than a feeling is one
wayl~"whch "anyoneusing the word in this manner automatically assumes
accountability and responsibility" (2UUU, 13). I will touch upon the issue of
accouniT5ffiry'and"fesponsi bili ty later in this section. First I want to explain the
usage oflovg r h e COQlgxt ofthe rage ofthe oppressed. The nurturing of oneselfadaother'sspiritual growth must be seen as antithetical to preservation
of power and domination over others. The necessity of self-love, derived from
'self-assertivenesS nd self-iegaid, should not be seen as the same as the narcissistic hedonism that flourishes within the realm of possessive individualism. The
possessive individual requires a subordinate and distant other in order to
secure an understanding of a dominant self. On the other hand, as hooks states,
self-assertiveness is "the willingness to stand up for myself, to be who I am
treat myself with respect in all human encounters" (58). This form
of self-assertion should be seen as a claiming of one's humanity in the wake of
ongoing attempts at subjugation via objectification by systems of oppression.
Self-regard connotes a sense of self-acceptance. One is only able to accept the
Other if one is first able to accept oneself. This is based on seeing one's inter
connection with others in a manner that sees everyone as part of a larger
composite of life. The path of self-love requires much nourishment and heal
ing in an era of ongoing systems of oppression.
Erich Fromm, quoted in hooks, notes that "the principle underlying cap
italistic society and the principle of love are incompatible . . . Our society is run
by a managerial bureaucracy, by professional politicians; people are motivated
by mass suggestion, their aim is producing more and consuming more, as pur
poses in themselves" (72). And as Mills's Racial Contract has shown us, white
supremacy is a vital aspect of maintaining this operating system. Artist Barbara
Kruger, notes bell hooks "Created a work proclaiming 'I shop therefore I am'
to show the way consumerism has taken over mass consciousness, making peo
ple think they are what they possess" (2000, 72). The link made by George
Lipitz is crucial to demonstrate the "possessive investment" in whiteness that
many whites think they "naturally" hold. While the zeal to possess intensifies,
so does the sense of spiritual emptiness. The words of Aime Cesaire (1972) j
articulate this sense of emptiness, " I t is not the head of a civilization that begins
to rot first. It is the heart" (28).
Love cannot simply be of self but must be seen in terms of connections to
others. This is based on an understanding of self beyond the narrow confines
ofthe individual. "The choice to love is a choice to connectto find ourselves
in the other" (hooks, 2000, 93). Love must be seen, as bell hooks notes, "as
an active force that should lead us into greater communion with the world . ..
loving practice is not aimed at simply giving an individual greater life satisfac-

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tion; it is extolled as the primary way we end domination and oppression" {76).
In this sense, love must not be seen as a highly individualistic marginal phe
nomenon. Love must be seen as a social activity. Nurturing a pedagogy of rage
would have to center around what hooks describes as a "love ethic" (87). She
suggests that, "A love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free,
to live fully and well. To bring a love ethic to every dimension of our lives, our
society would need to embrace change" (87). The development of a love
ethic in this sense is fundamental in addressing the issue of fear. If fear is a pri
mary source of personal and soqpral rprruption as Aung San Suu Kyi notes, 1
then "dica! change is seen to be a grave threat to upholders ofthe status quo, I
and'a nihilistic sense of isolation and helplessness is the greatest threat to
those who suffer from subjugation. A love ethic is the primary beacon to
guide one out of both predicaments, for love is the ability, to see and act in a
manner that connects all. It also forces one to become accountable and respon
sible for one's own actions or lack thereof.
Taking accountability and responsibility for one's actions urges a person
with privilege to resist aiding and abetting oppression. It also ensures that the
oppressed dos not remain in a state of perpetual victimhood. The oppresseds'
own actions are the key to defying that which has been imposed on them. This 'i
(notion of love as action is a tie that binds the privileged to the oppressed.JThis I
is the point at which an understanding ofthe connections between systmjTof /
oppression becomes crucial. As I mentioned earlier, people ot color must [
ensure that all the-differences among us do not become subsumed under a \
generic subjectivity that assumes the mande of innocence. My point here is to \
make explicit the fact that many people of color have been and are complicit I
in ensuring the personal progress of white people. Mills's Racial Contractzruc- utes~this as a situation in which whiteness offers rewards to some peopTeof
color at the expense of others. This can be seen in the following examples? (1)
people of color attempt to secure bourgeois respectability, but actually succeed
in aiding in the oppression of other communities of color; (2) men of color,
operating underjthe aegjsjjfpatriarchy to secure male doniinnce alolid"
the oppression of women of color; (3) people of color operate with naturalized heteronormarive discourses of sexuality and thus demonize queer mem
bers ot the community. In all cases one must work within the framework of
whiteness to secure a spot on the mfle ot the status quo (Fellow 8c Razack,
1998). We, as people of color, must recognize that although we are all
oppressed by the system of white supremacy, our privileges may come at the
expense of other people of color. Nurturing the rage ofthe oppressed requires
a love ethic that allows people of color, differentially privileged and oppressed,
to individually experience the collective pain of all people of color. This is not

278 I Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies

an easy task due primarily to the personal and collective efforts that are a prequisite for the cleansing ofthe colonized mind. As Malcolm X said, wc "have
to change our own mind . . . We got to change our own minds about each
other. We have to see each other with new eyes. We have to come together with
warmth . . ." (as cited in hooks, 1995, 146). We must be able to make connections across our storiesy to see how patriarchy is vital to reproducing the
notions of nation that hold women of color hostageRadhika Mohanram
(1999) documents how women of color come to embody the space ofthe
nation in discourse of national liberation; thus one responsibility of men of color
is to constantly disrupt the gendered roles ascribed to them by the cultures of
occupied settler societies in Canada and the United States. We must see how
naturalized narratives of heterosexuality are necessary for the reproduction of
white supremacy via dominant discourses of family values. People of color must
challenge these naturalized discourses and interrogate our own complicity in
heteronormative practices that continue to marginalize queer people of color.
How natural is heterosexuality? As natural as whiteness I presume. The pain
of one of us is the pain of all of us. We must recognize our pain and name it
as such. Then can we begin to see how others are also suffering.
bell hooks (1994) reminds us that, "It is not easy to name our pain, to
make it a location for theorizing" (74). Patricia Williams ( 1991 ) writes that even
those of us who are aware are made to feel the pain that all forms of domination (homophobia, class exploitation, racism, sexism, imperialism) engender:
There are moments in my life when I feel as though a part of me is missing. There are
days when I feel so invisible that I can't remember what days ofthe week it is, when I
feel so manipulated that I can't remember my own name, when I feel so lost and angry
that I can't speak a civil word to the people who love me best. There are the rimes when
I catch sight of my reflection in store windows and am surprised to see a whole person looking back . . . I have to close my eyes at such times and remember myself, draw
an internal pattern that is smooth and whole. (228)

The rage ofthe oppressed is fueled by a love that is articulated by actions of

resistance. In this neocolonial era, love of self is a grave threat to the existing
systems of oppression. Love is a form of political resistance that is so powerful because once ignited it can never be extinguished. Che Guevara and Paulo
Freire's utilization ofthe concept of revolutionary love is well documented in
Peter McLaren's (2000) text on the pedagogy of revolution. Revolutionary love
is born of dialogue, reciprocity, self-reflexivity, and collective historical memory. McLaren notes:
The commitment of revolutionary love is sustained by preventing nihilism and despair
from imposing their own life-denying inevitability in times of social strife and cultural turmoil. Anchored in narratives of transgression and dissent, love becomes the

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foundation of hope. In this way, love can never be reduced to personal declarations or
pronouncements but exists always in asymmetrical relations of anxiety and resolve, interdependence and singularity. Love, in'this Freirean sense, becomes the oxygen of revolution, nourishing the blood of historical memory. It is through reciprocal dialogue
that love is able to serve as a form of testimony to those who have struggled and suffered before us, and whose spirit of struggle has survived efforts to extinguish it and
remove it from the archives of human achievement... while we often abandon hope,
we are never abandoned by hope. (172)

The reclaiming ofthe self from the objectifying forces of systemic oppression
forms the foundation that is the pedagogy of rage. An outright refusal of subperson status enscripted upon our bodies of color by white supremacy is
unconditionally demanded by a pedagogy of rage. The process of reclaiming
ourselves from the dominant gaze is a pedagogy of rage.
Pedagogy of Rqge
[S]urvival is not an academic skill.-Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider

In this section I do not propose a cohesive or exhaustive framework for

engagement with the pedagogy of rage, but I do wish to emphasize a few key
points that may nurture our personal and collective rage. My usage ofthe concept of pedagogy concerns the need for people of color to maintain the ability to be simultaneously reflexive and proactive. All of our personal and
collective mechanisms for resistance and methods of negotiating the oppressive conditions we find ourselves in should be constantly nourished. The following sections outline points that may aid in the nourishing endeavor. But
before I continue, I wish to emphasize the following: If it has not been made
clear, the point of my writing this paper is tell those folks who cringe, become
flustered, resent, and/or react to instances when the rage ofthe oppressed does
not flinch when looking them in the eyewe ain't gonna make this easy for
you. We are not going to sugarcoat our experiences of violence, pain, and anger.
We will only talk to you if you are willing to listen to the language of our
tongues. We do not feel you require the luxury of a translator. So you best
believe we gonna come at you and unleash our fury if you present yourself as
the all knowing, or when you want to give us your opinion about our lives, or
when you say you've acknowledged your subject-position and then continue
to do what you have always done. Nah, we ain't sugarcoating our shit for you.
Reclaiming our WHOLE selves
We refuse to be what you want us to be, we are what we are, and that's the way it's
going to be.
Bob Marley, Babylon System

280 I Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies

There is a space reserved for bodies of color within the imagination of whiteness. It is the space for the token, the spokesperson, the exotic, and the threat.
The first three have limited space and have room for just a few. When die first
three are filled, the last space is used as a holding area for the rest of us. All of
these spaces grant partial visibility to people of color, yet all require that those
who are chosen to enter leave "that which is not desired at the door" before
they are granted entry. The only subject that does not require a separation from
self in this imagination is the somatic norm whose reality is reflected in this
sphere. The somatic norm is exemplified in the notion of the bourgeois subject (white, middle-class, heterosexual male). (For further elaboration, the
notion ofthe bourgeois subject is taken up by Sherene Razack, 1998.) Those
who wish entry into this sphere are required to convert themselves.
The process of conversion holds that moral, cognitive, and aesthetic requirements are to be met before one is accepted into their respectively allocated
space.
In light of an established authoritative moral code in occupied settler
states such as Canada and the United States, people of color and First Nations
communities have traditionally been viewed as incapable of morality and passing the innate threat of a "return to nature." Thus both the bleeding heart liberal model of the white man's burden and the conservative model of
incantations of national tradition have been utilized to ensure that people of
color and First Nations communities become equipped with the "proper
tools" necessary to achieve "success" today. Fundamental to this moral code
is the establishment of a dominant gaze within the eyes ofthe converted. The
dominant gaze becomes internalized, and thus one must be able to see oneself through a negation of self, in part through imperial eyes.
The subperson status ascribed to nonwhites by the system of White
Supremacy is deemed a result of cognitive inferiority because nonwhites lack
sufficient rationality to make them fully human. The capacity for cultural
developmentcivilizationis denied to bodies of color. Thus invites the
intervention of those who are capable of culture. The lack of nonwhite cognition must be verified by white cognition to be accepted as valid. According
to the requirements imposed on bodies of color, the capability of mastering
white Western culture must be proven before partial membership is granted in
the epistemic community.
The aesthetic dimension for the norming of the individual involves a specific norming of the body. Judgment of moral worth is often conflated with
judgment of aesthetic worth in mainstream discourses. Notions of beauty and
ugliness are based on the white body as the somatic norm. To the extent that

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/these norms are accepted, people of color (whose features are most removed
from this norm) will be the most alienated, bell hooks (1995) has categorized
the requirements imposed upon the black body by white supremacy as a
process of dissimulation. She describes dissimulation as, "the practice of taking on any appearance needed to manipulate a situation[a] form of masking that black folks have historically used to survive in white-supremacist
society. As a social practice it promoted duplicity, the wearing of masks, hiding true feelings and intent" (143). While this strategy of survival is often necessary in daily relations with white supremacy, it undermines the bonds of love
(, and intimacy necessary to cultivate health. Himani Bannerji (1995) discusses
her own experiences of dissociationthe violent moment of rupture between
the private and public self (102-103). She is forcediby the social relations
required in academia to place her role as pedagogue over her personal wellbeing. The acts of disjociaiion-and^dissimulation afetechniques of survival in
social relations of violence and alienation However, these are moments when
the attempt to avoid violence is~replaced with an act of violence upon oneself.
Although these acts of dissimulation and dissociation are necessary at the
moment, they should not become overvalued as comfortable places of being.
The violence inherent in such personal practices takes its mental toll, often leading to nihilistic behavior. Andrien Katherine Wing (1997), reflecting on Patricia'
' Williams usage ofthe term spirit-murder, aptly summarizes this point in the
following passage, "To me, spirit murder consists of hundreds, if not thousands,
of spirit injuries and assaultssome major, some minorthe cumulative effect
of which is the slow death ofthe psyche, the soul, and the persona" (28). \
On the other hand, when these acts are recognized as subversive or
moments of protest motivated by an unrelenting rage and vision of a larger collective goal, then they may be analogized as "a stream moving on its way, a little tributary to join what I dream ofa real socialist revolution, feminist,
antiracist, marxist, [queer], anti-imperialist" (Bannerji, 1995,106).
The refusal of space allocated to bodies of color within the imagination of \
whiteness is vital to the assurance of mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.
We should never have to adjust ourselves to fit into an unilinear, white male
paradigm to be seen as successes or as failures in this world. We are a mutually constituted, "multilayered, multiplicative wholeness . . . multiple of each of
our parts yet holding one indivisible being" (Wing, 1997, 31). For the :
oppressed to claim full visibilitynot just the partial visibility granted to us by
whitenesswe must understand our experiences as, "characterized not only by
oppression, discrimination, and spirit murder, but by strength and love and
transcendence as well" (32).
_
*

2 8 2 j Critical Issues in Anti-racist

Research

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Tongues Untied
Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when 1 would rather speak Spanglish,
and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them
accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate.
Gloria Anzaldua, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

There are always going to be consequences and judgments of our actions as

we continue to struggle to survive in the neocolonial world. The most important judges of our actions should be those who love usourselves and those
with whom we share true love. True love is unconditional and extremely difficult to attain because to achieve it, much effort is required by all parties
involved. For ourselves, we must attempt to live fully, without relying on the
outside world for a measuring stick to gauge self-worth. We can travel to the
ends ofthe earth only to discover that what we have been searching for is located within. Living fully implies speaking the truth as one knows it, that is, we
find our true selves by living fully in the present. Thich Nhat Hanh, quoted
in bell hooks's, All About Love, notes the following:
To return to the present is to be in contact with life. Life can be found only in the present moment, because 'the past no longer is' and 'the future has not yet c o m e ' . . . Our
appointment with life is in the present moment. The place of our appointment is right
here, in this very place, (hooks, 2000, 204)

We must untie our tongues and speak the truth of what we feel. Worrying about
the future or ramifications resulting from our actions ofthe present often results
in constant fear and anxiety. Recall Aung San Suu Kyi's comments regarding
corruption resulting from the scourge of power. This often leads to a lack of
respect or recognition for those of us whose resistance is articulated in acts of
love.
A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of
courage which help to preserve [one's] self-respect and inherent human dignity. (Suu
Kyi, 1995, 184)

Often the actions that our own mothers engage in everyday are not seen as
resistance within the lens of patriarchy. Nurturing acts by women are not seen
to be a choice but rather an inherent marker of women's role in the world. All
anger against white supremacy articulated verbally by people of cojor in general is seen to be a marker of inherent bestial emotions. These outbursts or overreactions arc not seen to be calculated acts of intolerance but rather markers
of mental disorder or irrationality. The dominant discursive frame ofthe neo-

Order in K.O.S. | JOHAL | 283

colonial era will always attempt to give form to our experiences and actions.
This should, not control the form of engagement we wish to pursue at any particular moment.
Moving from silence into speech is for the oppressed, the colonized, the exploited, and
those who stand and struggle side by side, a gesture of defiance that heals, that makes
new life, and new growth possible. It is that act of speech, of "talking back" that is no
mere gesture of empty words, that is the expression of moving from object to subject,
that is the liberated voice, (hooks, 1990a, 340).

Militant Mindedness
That victim who is able to articulate the situation ofthe victim, has ceased to be a victim; he, or she, has become a threat.
James Baldwin^ Notes from a Native Son

Under the shield of everyday morality, which Milk has described as fundamental to the reproduction of whiteness and the racial contract, white supremacy
is able to maintain, often righteously, the conditions of systemic violence
(Mills, 1997). People of color experience the violence of whiteness on a daily
.basis. Whether it is physical or symbolic, the assault leaves the victim materially wounded. The physical and psychological wounding of people of color has i
effects for the assailant in the form ofthe reproduction of dominant subjec- i
tivity (whether it is state or citizen); as well as for the assaulted, in the form of
the reproduction of subpersonhood. However, it is only when the assaulted
attempt to respond to their condition as being a result of systemic forces that
the term violence is invoked. Lewis Gordon comments on labeling ofthe resistance of the oppressed as violence by an oppressive regime:
In an oppressive regime, bent upon its own theodicean preservationwhere evil can
only be accounted for through the existence of bad individuals or groups, not the systemany efforts towards systemic change will be regarded as violent. Consequently,
to meet the system's criteria for nonviolence, one must ensure preservation ofthe system itself. (Gordon, 1997,154)

Therefore, the only forms of resistance that a neocolonial regime will accept
as nonviolent are those that preserve the status quo. However, Malcolm X's
(1970) articulation ofthe nature of violence in the neocolonial era is one that
is vital to an understanding of a pedagogy of rage:
This [racist element in the State Department] is the element that became worried about
the changing Negro mood and the changing Negro behaviour, especially if that mood
and that behaviour became one of what they call violence. By violence they only mean
when a black man protects himself asainst any attack of a white, man. That is what thev

2 8 4 j Critical Issues in Anti-racist

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mean by violence . . . Because they don't even use the word violence until someone
gives the impression that you're about to explode. When it comes time for a black man
to explode they call it violence. But white people can be exploding against black people all day long, and it's never called violence. I even have some of you come to me
and ask me, am I for violence? I'm the victim of violence, and you're the victim of violence. But you've been so victimized by it that you can't recognize it for what it is today.
(176).

Mills's Racial Contract demonstrates the necessity for violence in containing

and regulating bodies of color in the neocolonial era. Occupied settler states
such as Canada and the United States take pride in their "liberal democratic"
institutions as upholding traditions of democracy and justice. However, the historical legacy ofthe suppression of people of color and First Nationscentered
movements in these occupied territories illustrates that democracy and justice
are reserved for those who wish to serve and maintain the system as is. One
only has to look at the contemporary history of the state's response to the
American Indian Movement at Wounded Knee in 1973, the Philadelphia
police's response to the MOVE organization in 1979 and 1985, the Canadian
army's response to Oka and Gustafson Lake in 1990 and 1995, to see the intimate workings of systems of oppression in the neocolonial era. Mainstream
media discourses, the penal system (lawmakers, and police agencies, and the
government) all worked collectively to censor and contain any threat to the
racial order of things. Censoring and/or containing militant responses to the
workings of whiteness, ensures that there will be no revolutionary effort to
gather that rage and use it for constructive social change. However perpetual
incidents of violence serve as harsh reminders compelling us to take a stand,
speak out, and choose whether we will be complicit or resist. Silence in the face
of assault is complicity.
Lorraine Hansberry (quoted in bell hooks, 1990b) echoes the necessity of
militant mindedness when she wrote in 1962:
The conditions of our people dictates what can only be called revolutionary attitudes
. . . Negroes must concern themselves with every single means of struggle: legal, illegal, passive, active, violent and nonviolent. They must harass, debate, petition, give
money to court struggles, sit-in, lie-down, strike, boycott, sing hymns, pray on
steps-and shoot from their windows when the racists come cruising through their communities . . . the acceptance of our present condition is the only form of extremism
which discredits us before our children. (186-187)

A pedagogy of rage recognizes the necessity of militancy given the extreme

techniques of containment and control utilized in the neocolonial era. The violence we experience on an ongoing basis requires us to defend ourselves as well
as our loved ones. Within this context, pacifism (the acceptance of one's con-

Order in K.O.S. | JOHAL 1285

dition as inevitable and unchangeable) must be seen as a pathology (Churchill
and Ryan, 1998). One cannot turn one's cheek when there is no other cheek
left to turn. Once again I turn to the words of Malcolm X: "I don't believe in
any form of unjustified extremism, but I believe that when a man [or woman]
is exercising extremism, a human being is exercising extremism, in defense of
liberty for human beings, it's no vice. And when one is moderate in the pursuit of justice for human beings, I say [s]he's a sinner" (1970:144). The history of these occupied lands is of extremism. Any attempt to pursue societal
progress through institutional reform in moderation is regress. From the time
of the colonial occupation of these lands, the spaces occupied have been
extreme. People operating under the aegis of whiteness, have misused their
power (or selfishly utilized it at the expense of people of color and First
Nation's communities). Their tactics of spatial management are extreme. The
only way to counter this abuse is through change; the only way change is going
to come is via extreme methods.
Walking with the Spirits of Our Ancestors
'When memory dies, a people dies.'
What if you create false memories?
That's worse. That's murder.
A. Sivanandan, When Memory Dies

We must be willing to remember and attempt to walk in the footsteps of all

those who have spilled their blood to clear the path for us. We must resist the
neocolonial distortions of our stories. Memory is a key site of resistance that
requires constant nourishment in an era in which we are inundated with mainstream discourses that offer false memories, camera tricks, and rose-colored
lenses through which to view our pasts. Toni Morrison (1990) captures this
sentiment:
'But let us drop a veil over these proceedings too terrible to relate'... In shaping the
experience to make it palatable to those who were in a position to alleviate it, they were
silent about many things, and they 'forgot' many other things. (301)

Having said this, we must be wary of Frantz Fanon's warning against retelling
of our past as a golden unified era (Fanon, 1963). We, as people of color and
First Nation's communities, across all our differencesgender, sexuality, culture, religiondo not share a mythical past. We do have a shared history, albeit
differentially experienced, of being oppressed in the colonial and neocolonial
eras. We must extrapolate our histories of shared struggle, as well as those
moments in which we were complicit in another's oppression. In short, we must

286 I Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies

be willing to dialogue as long lost siblings who have found each other after
being separated by a system bent on keeping us apart.
The pain that our forebears bore so that we are able to sit and communicate together today cannot be lost. We must tap this collective spirit so it may
flow through our veins now. We must be willing to sacrifice without any hesitation or fear of death. We must see death as a part of life; something to welcome and move toward. What's the point of life if one is unwilling to risk
comfort for the betterment of self and others collectively? There's a poster of
a revolutionary martyr that has hung on the wall in my family home for a number of years. The caption on the poster reads: "A physical death I do not fear.
But a death of consciousness is a sure death." The living dead are all among
us. They are those who value personal profit and property over the well-being
of life on this planet. Remembrance of our past and critical awareness ofthe
present are vital in ensuring that we are able to form a collective consciousness.
For the oppressed, the trauma associated with the pain and suffering ofthe past
must be coupled with love in the present. Only then will it be possible to tap
our collective rage and struggle for the future. I recall an Orwellian saying that
has been floating around in my head for some time: "Those who control the
present, control the past. Those who control the past, control the future." A
pedagogy of rage nurtures a struggle for positioning in the memory war ofthe
neocolonial era.
Surviving Together
I am from an island whose history is steeped in the abuses of Western imperialism, whose
people still suffer the deformities caused by Euro-American colonialism, old and new.
Unlike many third world liberationists, however, I cannot claim to be a descendem of
any particular strain, noble or ignoble. I am, however, "purely bred," descendent of
all the parties involved in that cataclysmic epoch. I despair, for the various parts of me
cry out for retribution at having been brutally uprooted and transplanted to fulfill the
profit-cry of "white" righteousness and dominance. My soul moans that part of me that
was destroyed by that callous instrument... the gun, the whip, the book. My mind,
echoes with the screams of disruption, desecration, destruction.
Rose VUlafane-Sisolak, quoted in Anzaldua Making Face, Making Soul

The need for a person torecognizewhatever form of privilege they hold in relation to another is vital to nurturing a pedagogy of rage. We must work together if we are to see any change in the way things work in the neocolonial era.
Therefore, anyone who holds privilege, whether it is skin color, gender, sexuality, class, ability, or age, must recognize their privilege as such and take
responsibility for it.

Order in K.O.S. | JOHAL | 287

Lip service alone is not going to cut it. Simple recognition without any firm
commitment to material and/or personal change is politicking the
chameleonesque movements that allow a person of privilege to appear progressive and caring about someone else's well-being at one moment in time and
space, yet fail to act when moments of potential rupture arise in their space ol
personal comfort. Politically correa attitudes tell people what they want to. hear
without revealing what lurks within: "I hear and feel your pain and support you,
but won't do anything to help you if it means forsaking anything." One cannot simply acknowledge one's privilege and continue to do what one has
always done. Action is the only way to measure the commitment ofthe privi-.
leged in their attempt to denaturalize their position. You can not call yourself I
an ally if you expect the world to continue to revolve around you. Tliinking
about others and changing the things one always has done is a part of the
process of loving that is necessary for spiritual connections to be made. This
is fundamental to any talk of transgression or hybridity. Actions change in
response to the need for a solidarity in which the survival of each depends on
the survival of all. We must get away from an emphasis on voluntarily giving
up privilege. Understanding of privilege will only occur through experience and
struggle against the system of oppression that provides that privilege.
i
The issue of unlearning privilege is the same as unlearning racism, sexism, j
or any other aspect ofthe "ism schism." You cannot do it? It is a fallacy to think '
that one can unlearn one's privilege. Yvonne Brown (1997) articulates this
point:
It is a fallacy that you can unlearn racism [or any other 'ism], there is at yet no learning theory which says this is possible. Once you have learned racist attitudes and
behaviours, they are available in memory to be retrieved when the socio-economic conditions are fertile to act these out. However to know about and understand all aspects
of racism gives the individual choices in behaviour and the bases for critical thinking
in all social and personal situations. (Brown, 1997)

'

To get beyond the issue of guilt and resentment, persons with privilege must
take responsibility for all of their actions or lack thereof. They must understand
and take responsibility for a structure they did not create but from which they
still benefit. They cannot expect those who have suffered under this privilege
to show them how to do this. This is a personal journey that will eventually j
bring people together in the struggle against systems of oppression that dehu- J
manize all who are involved. Treason to bourgeois respectability (whiteness, \
patriarchy, heteronormativity, capitalism) is loyalty to humanity. Once again I :
invoke the words of Malcolm X (1970):
And in my opinion the young generation of whites, blacks, browns, whatever else there
is, you're living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time where there's eot

288 I Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies

to be a change. People in power have misused it, and now there has to be a change and
a better world to be built, and the only way it's going to be built is with extreme meth
ods. I for one will join in with anyone, I don't care what color you arc, as long as you
want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth. (1970, 182)

Conclusion
Before any lasting and meaningful solidarity and alliance can be made among
white people, people of color, and First Nations communities, many of us must
be willing to acknowledge our own complicity in the oppression of others. This
willingness will only be possible if one has done the work necessary to avoid
relying on privileges bestowed upon them. The possessive investment in a dominant subjectivity will have to be dispossessed, but it must be made clear that
any acknowledgment and rescission of privilege is not a single, one-time deal.
It is part of an ongoing process of decolonization. It will not be complete until
the various systems of oppression operating in the neocolonial era are disman
tled. As long as systems of oppression continue to exist, various privileges asso
ciated with these systems will be available to those who wish to cash in their
investment. It is not enough for one to simply acknowledge the fact they now
understand what it means to have privilege. They must be willing to shut their
mouth, perk up the^r ears and demonstrate via their actions what it i$ they feel
they now know?"
My rage will never allow mc to turn my cheek during moments when I am
in a position to be an ally to someone else or when I am a direct recipient of
the violence of the neocolonial era. Depending on the circumstances, I will
choose my course of action, but never will my rage be extinguished. It burns
with such intensity that it is unlikely I will ever comprehend it fully. This is
because the source of my rage is not only the ongoing attempt to respect myself
in the wake of an onslaught of constant violence but an irrevocable bond with
those who have brought me this far. I must associate with those with whom I
can dialogue, build a community, and critically interrogate my own complic
ity. These souls help to replenish the personal energy I need to keep moving
in life. I know I must walk carefully, methodically, and maintain my focus at
all times. I can do this because of my love for myself and others, and my ongo
ing demonstration of respect for all those who continue to carry me through
the realm of material madness in the neocolonial era. The spirits of our ances
tors have led us this far. The least we can do is carry on with what they knew
to be truea truth that is located within. A truth that emerges from a knowl
edge ofthe interconnected self and brings a grounded order in KOS.

Order in K.O.S. | JOHAL | 289

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